The book for this week is Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites by Celine Steen & Joni Marie Newman. If you don't have access to any of the cookbooks, you may also choose an alternate book, just remember to post all your results here.

Choose 3 or more recipes from the selected cookbook of the week and tell us about it! Post pictures, comments or anything else you can think of here. If you choose to switch books around and do this cookbook on a different week, feel free to come back and post in this thread anytime.

Yes! This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I have all the ingredients for beefy cheese macaroni so I'll probably make it this week. The breakfast bowl is great although I usually end up making it for dinner rather than breakfast.

_________________Again, you are all brilliant and sexy. And I am lavender-laden and secure in my masculinity. - Sir Brancis Facon

Bought this one for my Kindle...I'm liking it so far but things are very high calorie and HIGH fat. I'm not anti oil but 30g of fat between oil and nuts kind of makes my stomach hurt.

I have the Slow Cooker Corn Chowder going right now for tonight...it features 1 cup of soy creamer and a whole container of vegan cream cheese. I chose Tofutti because it had the least calories and fat. Potatoes, onion and red pepper are from my CSA...corn from Trader Joe's. I resisted the urge to use roasted corn because I didn't want to change the flavor profile on the first go. So I threw in the whole 1 lb bag of white corn.

Since I didn't have last week's book, I got a head start on this one and made the Pesto Pea-damame Soup on Friday. It's amazingly delicious, but I think I'm going to cut down the oil significantly the next time I make it. The amount of fat per serving with 4 servings (30g!) made me feel a little sick, even if the soup was really filling. The pesto calls for 1/3-1/2 cup of oil...I used 1/3 and that was too much...oil was leeching out of the pesto as it sat while I waited on the peas and edamame to cook. I think 3 tbsp would probably be sufficient and will cut the fat content significantly.

This week I also plan to make the Sloppy Jo-Nis, and maybe the Raisin Corn Breakfast Bread.

Here's the Pesto Pea-damame Soup, with a slice of the yummy Cereal Loaf we get once a month through our CSA:

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6025Location: United States of New England

i forgot to add the Sloppy Joni's are also delicious!

and yes this is not a low calorie/low fat book at all. i found with most of the recipes i cut way down on the oil with no ill side effects. its VERY heavy on the oil but you can totally cut it down to what you're comfortable with for things like sauteing in the pan.

the beefy cheesy mac i thought had way too much oil in it and next time i use it i will cut way down.

I'm a big believer in the "happy medium" when it comes to oil. It doesn't necessarily have to be "low fat," but super high amounts seem to still bother my stomach. I had gallbladder issues that I "fixed" when I went vegan and have only had one attack since (caused by a veggie burger grilled alongside fatty beef burgers)...but although high fat vegan items don't cause an attack, they do give me a little bit of a stomachache.

The Slow Cooker Corn Chowder is super easy to throw together. I will probably make it again, but with unsweetened MimicCreme instead of Trader Joe's Soy Creamer, which was a bit too sweet for a savory dish IMO. My husband really liked it and didn't mind the sweetness at all. I added a bit of Wayfare Bacony Bits to mine to make it more savory.

and yes this is not a low calorie/low fat book at all. i found with most of the recipes i cut way down on the oil with no ill side effects. its VERY heavy on the oil but you can totally cut it down to what you're comfortable with for things like sauteing in the pan.

the beefy cheesy mac i thought had way too much oil in it and next time i use it i will cut way down.

I've cut way back on the oil and earth balance when fixing entrees or side dishes from this book, and the food is still very hearty and flavorful. The only recipes I haven't adjusted for fat content are baked goods. If I'm making something like the cinnamon sugar donut holes, I don't skimp on the fat or sugar because they are a treat, not something I'd make every day.

Sometimes I make a lower fat version of the breakfast bowl by using roasted, cubed potatoes instead of tater tots.

_________________Again, you are all brilliant and sexy. And I am lavender-laden and secure in my masculinity. - Sir Brancis Facon

I've had my eye on these for a long time. The fudge is so, so good, but it's pretty much just peanut butter, sugar and coconut milk and you can't really go wrong with those things. The cookies themselves are a little bit sweeter than I would prefer, and I think if I were to make them again I would add salt since the salted peanuts themselves don't quite cut it. The big thing to know about this recipe, though, is that the serving sizes are crazy huge. Like when they say it makes 12 large cookies, they mean some forking large cookies. I made average-sized cookies instead (still bordering on pretty big) and got 27. We've got a lot of cookies to get through!

Haha...I figured the cookies were large when one of the recipes says to use a cookie scoop or a 1/4 cup measuring cup to put the cookies on the baking sheet. My cookie scoop is 1 tbsp! I have a 3 tbsp one coming from Pampered Chef though.

I'd like to make the bbq slaw tacos this week, but I have a problem with the whiskey bbq sauce. I don't have grape jelly, do you think I could use red currant jelly instead? I've never eaten jelly in my whole life so I wouldn't know the difference, but I don't wanna screw it up.

I'd like to make the bbq slaw tacos this week, but I have a problem with the whiskey bbq sauce. I don't have grape jelly, do you think I could use red currant jelly instead? I've never eaten jelly in my whole life so I wouldn't know the difference, but I don't wanna screw it up.

I think red currant jelly would be fine, maybe even better!

_________________Again, you are all brilliant and sexy. And I am lavender-laden and secure in my masculinity. - Sir Brancis Facon

I'd like to make the bbq slaw tacos this week, but I have a problem with the whiskey bbq sauce. I don't have grape jelly, do you think I could use red currant jelly instead? I've never eaten jelly in my whole life so I wouldn't know the difference, but I don't wanna screw it up.

Those donut holes look great! I've had my eye on that recipe for a while but I can't justify baking more treats when we still have to get through cookie mountain!

I did bake the kale bagels though.

I took one to work for lunch yesterday (and today, looking forward to that!) and it was great, nice and soft- good for sandwich-style bagels. Boyfriend has been eating them toasted with Tofutti for breakfast and reports that they're delicious that way too. Mine were underbaked after the time given in the recipe, but fine after a few more minutes. The serving sizes for these seem to be huge, too. The recipe says it makes 8 bagels, but I halved the recipe and still got 6 nicely sized ones.

And last night I made the baked BBQ seitan buns.

I was worried that these weren't going to turn out properly, mainly because my dough didn't rise nearly as much as it should have. But they were good! Again, I reduced the recipe and made mini-buns- two half-sized buns ended up being just fine for dinner alongside some grilled corn and kale salad. I can see these being great for a potluck or picnic lunch. I'd be keen to try them with beans, too, just for those times when I don't have seitan on hand.

I don't have this cookbook, so I'm doing The Complete Guide to Vegan Substitutions by the same authors. The big challenge for me is that I'll only have time to cook on two days this week, today and tomorrow. After that, I've got a slew of late shifts in a row and by the time I get home from them, I'm usually too pooped to cook. So I'm making big batches on the days I can cook to bring with me to heat up in the microwave at work.

Today I made the Green Tempeh Veggie Feast, and loved it! The veggie/tempeh combo is really nice, but the pepita pesto is what really puts it over the top. And it makes a huge amount, so I've got a healthy batch of leftovers.

Tomorrow I'll be making the Creamy Polenta Chili Bake, and the Denver Quiche. Hopefully between the three recipes I'll have enough leftovers to keep me going through my work week(end).

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

That tempeh sounds great, lepelaar! I haven't used Vegan Subs nearly enough either (I just have a couple of go-to recipes, like the smoky potato wedges) so I'll be interested to see how the other things you've chosen turn out.

I just made a batch of the TVP pepperoni for our pizza tomorrow. It doesn't taste exactly like pepperoni, but it has a nice flavor. I think it'll be good on pizza. It was very easy to put together, which is a bonus.

I made the bbq slaw tacos yesterday, with the whisky bbq sauce (with red currant jelly instead of grape jelly). Loved them both (guess it's not much of a challenge for me to make something with bbq sauce + slaw, I always like it, heh). One of my new favorites from this book!

I did make some other changes as well, like omitting the capers + caper brine in the slaw, using white vinegar instead (I despise capers), I used chicken-style seitan instead of store-bought chicken bits, and I halved the slaw recipe since 1 pound of seitan usually makes 2 servings for me and I didn't think I would need all that slaw. But I wish I had made the full amount because it was lovely.